In 1798, the marine engineer Laval and the person in charge of the port of Le Havre, Peytes-Moncabrié, proposed the “Vigigraphe” (which would mean “watchman who writes down his observations”) to send messages from land to ships. The Vigigraphe was difficult to implement. operate and was replaced by a design by Charles Depillon (or Dupillon) (1768-1805) and put into practice by the ship captain Luis Leon Jacob calling it “semaphore”. Etymologically the word semaphore means “signal bearer” (from the Greek sema = signal and phoros = “that carries”). This signaling by means of lights was effective for communication with ships and orienting them to their proximity to land or orientation for navigation, being unidirectional, and especially used at night.